The Administrative Core is the nucleus of the Waisman Center MRDDRC. It provides the scientific, administrative, and fiscal leadership of the Center, and supports Core projects'needs for communications expertise and computing security. The Core fosters multidisciplinary collaborations internally, and serves as the liaison between the MRDDRC and the larger university, national, and international contexts. The Waisman Center has raised considerable private funds for improvements of physical facilities and for program development. The overarching goal of the Administrative Core is to provide the environment in which science relevant to MRDD flourishes and in which investigators can devote their maximum energy toward making advances that will lead to the discovery of the causes, consequences, and cures for MRDD, with the least administrative burden and the greatest degree of cost-effectiveness of Core services.